PAPAROA HOSPITAL

Northern Advocate, 15 August 1933, Page 5

PAPAROA HOSPITAL

ALTERNATIVE PLAN. SUGGESTION OF MINISTER. LEASE TO QUALIFIED NURSE. SUPPLEMENTED DY GRANT. (Spec'al to "Northern Advocate PAPAROA, This, Day. The lion. .1. A. Young, Minister of Health, visited, this district yesterday and. was met at the Council Chambers by Messrs R. Coates and J. S. Davidson, members of the County Council, M. Skelton and W. Collins, Otamatea members of the Kaipara Hospital Board and office-bearers of Hie Paparoa Methodist Church, in connection with the recent decision of the Kaipara Hospital Board to close the Nurse Cavell Memorial Hospital at

Paparoa. The deputations interviewed the Minister in support of the protests previously forwarded him by the Otamatea County Council and ratepayers against the closing of the institution. The Minister, while expressing sympathy with the settlors, pointed out that the loss on working for the preceding 12 months was £BIB and the percentage of occupied bods 3.S out of 14. The record for the To Kopuru Hospital was 21.7 occupied bods out of 4.1. The Minister thought that to endeavour to make up to the Otamatea ratepayers for the loss of their hospital by providing an ambulance service to To Kopnru would be unworkable.

As an alternative plan, the Minister suggested inviting applications for the lease of the hospital at a nominal rental, the applicant to be a qualified nurse with maternity and general nursing certificates, who would act as matron, providing her own necessary help for running the hospital and outdoor work and'collecting her own foes. To supplement her income, he suggested a grant of £2OO in salary and £2OO for the treatment of indigent cases. The doctor would collect his own fees and would also be made an allowance for indigent cases. The Health Department and the Hospital Board would still have complete powers of supervision and control of the institution, which would remain a. public hospital. Mr Young said this alternative plan of hospital management was in operation at Motueka, Rakaia, Hunt#, and elsewhere, and was working well. The members of the deputation expressed themselves pleased with the Minister’s proposal, Mr Collins and other speakers raised the point that the only drawback would be that no subsidy would bo provided for the doctor, whose fees for attending would have to be an additional charge on the patient. The Minister indicated that this might be further considered. The I’rime Minister, the, TM. Hon. C, \V. Forbes, and his party left New York on Monday for Washington to meet President Roosevelt. They pro coed from Washington, to Boston and leave on Sunday for Toronto, thence to Chicago, arriving there on Tuesday, August 22, states a special message from Wellington.!